• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Negros Occidental Third District Rep. Javier Miguel Benitez pledged to bring the country’s national creative industries council to Bacolod City and support its bid for inclusion in United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Creative Cities Network as a City of Gastronomy.
In his keynote speech during the 88th Bacolod City Charter Day awards night on June 18, Benitez said he wants members of the national body shaping the country’s creative economy to convene in Bacolod and experience firsthand the culture, creativity, and culinary heritage of Negros.
“I want the people who decide this country’s creative future to make some of those decisions here, on Negros ground, tasting what we taste and seeing what you have built,” Benitez said.
The lawmaker, who chairs the House special committee on creative industries, said his commitment is anchored on the implementation of the Creative Industries Development Act and the country’s 10-year creative industries roadmap through 2034, which seeks to position the Philippines as Asia’s creative capital by the end of the decade.
Benitez assured local officials that Congress can provide technical assistance, programs, and funding support to strengthen Bacolod’s UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy application.
He also highlighted the Philippines’ recent election as one of four new members of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, a body tasked with recommending measures to protect cultural traditions, indigenous knowledge, and other forms of intangible heritage.
Benitez said Bacolod’s gastronomy bid aligns with a broader vision of transforming the Negros economy by creating more value-added products rather than exporting agricultural produce in raw form.
While emphasizing that sugar remains central to the province’s identity and economy, he encouraged Negrenses to build new industries around their agricultural strengths.
“Sugar will always be our foundation, and we will never apologize for it. But a foundation is something you build on, not something you stop at,” he said.
Benitez also noted that Bacolod’s economy expanded by 7.7 percent over the past year, surpassing both provincial and national growth rates.
Linking his remarks to the Charter Day theme, he stressed that Bacolod’s progress should benefit the entire province, including sugar-producing communities, fishing villages, and coastal cities.
“Stronger together is not just how Bacolod wins. It is how Negros wins,” he said. | GPB
